Polish Fairy Tales

By A. J. Glinski. Translated by Maude Ashurst Biggs and illustrated by Cecile Walton. This beautifully-illustrated edition of A. J. Glinksi’s classic tales provides a marvelous glimpse into the world of Polish legend and folklore—and reveals its closeness and affinity to the greater European family of nations.

Glinksi, Poland’s master folklore writer, and his nation’s equivalent of the Brothers Grimm, spent many years in the mid-nineteenth century travelling all over his nation’s lands, listening to and writing down the stories as told to him by the ordinary folk.

In this manner, he captured Polish folklore as it truly was—the way that the peasants would tell their children as part of a wide-ranging oral tradition.

Bound up in history, legend, moral virtues, and ancient European culture, these classic stories were introduced to the English-speaking world early in the twentieth century. They were an instant hit, with tales such as the Frog Princess, Princess Miranda and Prince Hero, and many others quickly winning their place in the great classic tales of European literature.

From the introduction by Maude Ashurst Biggs:

These are selections from a large collection made by A. J. Glinski, printed at Wilna in 1862. These fairy tales come from a far past and may even date from primitive Aryan times. They represent the folklore current among the peasantry of the Eastern provinces of Poland, and also in those provinces usually known as White Russia. The obvious likenesses between these and the folklore of Germany, the Celtic nations, or to the Indian fairy tales, will strike every reader.

This new edition has been completely reset, and includes perfect digital reproductions of all the original illustrations.